You can see the publisher’s description of the book and read an excerpt here.

They also sent me a review copy, which I hope to write a blog post about sometime soon — though with our schedule this semester, I can make no promises. But from a quick flip through the book, I’ll give it a definite thumbs-up!

How to Enter the Giveaway

Remember, the book must be mailed to a U.S. address. If you live in the U.S., you have two ways to enter the contest:

Leave a comment on this post answering the question: What part of math do you find the hardest to understand or to explain to your children?

Post about the contest on your own blog (or on a homeschooling or parenting forum, if you don’t have a blog), then come here and add a comment with the link to your post.

You may do both, to double your chances — but please make sure your link is in a separate comment from your answer to the question, or I may forget to count it separately.

I will accept entries for a week and a half, through Friday, October 8th Monday, October 11th. (Extended due to family issues that made the weekend too busy!) After that, I will count up all the entries (numbered in order of their appearance in the comment section) and go to RANDOM.ORG to generate the winning number. I will email the winner to get your address, which I’ll then pass on to the publisher so they can send you your book.

Update

And the winner is . . . Lakshmi. Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway. I enjoyed reading your comments, and you’ve given me several ideas for future blog posts.

I don’t have any particular concept that I have any difficulty with. I love math and I am always looking for new ways to explain different concepts because often if a child struggles with one way, another explanation might clarify things for them.

I haven’t run into trouble with a particular concept, but with relating how math is relevant to everyday life for my daughter. We’ve read How Math Explains the World and The Language of Mathematics, but it hasn’t appeared to pique her interest. Hopefully by keeping the fuel around, her curiosity will spark something so she may someday appreciate or even understand the joy in recreational problem solving. (Gardner’s collected columns did that for me as a little burrito.)

I’m not having much trouble explaining the concepts, as my oldest daughter is in 5th grade and I taught 4th grade math for 10 years in school. I am having problems explaining why math is important and how you use it in real life. She is choosing not to believe that I use it every day. . .

I think I do just fine with elementary math, but once we hit things like quadratic equations we’ll be beyond my conceptual understanding and I’m afraid I’ll be reduced to just showing her how to plug numbers into formulae.

Or maybe I’ll study the math myself between now and then, and I’ll find that I understand it better than I did in high school. I always got great math grades, but I don’t think I ever had the conceptual understanding.

One of the hardest things I find to teach about is subtracting integers. I believe in using physical models like chips and number lines can help students make sense of the math, but really struggle with what that looks like when subtracting negative integers.

We’re not having specific issues right now. Our child is young and we try to introducing math concepts in fun and developmentally appropriate ways. We welcome ways to help us explain math concepts for the future.

Teaching the basics of math is the hardest part. In a way, math is like a foreign language. Once you understand the basics, you can start building on that understanding. If the child can’t grasp the basics, you can’t move forward.

I find it difficult to convince my own children and the children I tutor (so it’s not just a family thing!) to keep their math solutions organized! No one wants to carry down the equals sign or write down needed steps!

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Affiliate Disclosure

Almost all of the book covers featured on this site link to Amazon.com, where you can read descriptions and reviews‌—‌and where I earn a small commission if you actually buy a book. But if you have access to a good library loan system, you should be able to read most of the books for free.